been the residence of the Pharaohs for two
centuries and a half, but, during that comparatively short interval, had
risen from an unimportant place into a town of considerable magnitude.

On its river-side the houses and streets were brilliant, but on the
hill-slope lay, with but few more respectable exceptions, miserable,
poverty-stricken huts constructed of acacia-boughs and Nile-mud. On the
north-west rose the royal citadel.

"Let us turn back here," exclaimed Gyges to his young companions. During
his father's absence he was responsible as their guide and protector,
and now perceived that the crowd of curious spectators, which had
hitherto followed them, was increasing at every step.

"I obey your orders," replied the interpreter, "but yonder in the
valley, at the foot of that hill, lies the Saitic city of the dead, and
for foreigners I should think that would be of great interest."

"Go forward!" cried Bartja. "For what did we leave Persia, if not to
behold these remarkable objects?"

On arriving at an open kind of square surrounded by workmen's booths,
and not far from the city of the dead, confused cries rose among the
crowd behind them.

[Artisans, as well among the ancient as the modern Egyptians, were
accustomed to work in the open air.]

The children shouted for joy, the women called out, and one voice louder
than the rest was heard exclaiming: "Come hither to the fore-court of
the temple, and see the works of the great magician, who comes from the
western oases of Libya and is endowed with miraculous gifts by Chunsu,
the giver of good counsels, and by the great goddess Hekt."

"Follow me to the small temple yonder," said the interpreter, "and you
will behold a strange spectacle." He pushed a way for himself and the
Persians through the crowd, obstructed in his course by many a sallow
woman and naked child; and at length came back with a priest, who
conducted the strangers into the fore-court of the temple. Here,
surrounded by various chests and boxes, stood a man in the dress of a
priest; beside him on the earth knelt two negroes. The Libyan was a
man of gigantic stature, with great suppleness of limb and a pair of
piercing black eyes. In his hand he held a wind-instrument resembling
a modern clarionet, and a number of snakes, known in Egypt to be
poisonous, lay coiling themselves over his breast and arms.

On finding himself in the presence of the Persians he bowed low,
inviting them by a so